Robert L. Forward

All page numbers are from the mass market paperback edition published by Del Rey ISBN 0-345-31666-5, third printing (March 1984)

They used their intelligence to control things around them, instead of letting nature and the strong-muscled have their way.

Chapter 1, “Prologue” Section 2 (p. 4)

Finally, in one fateful trillionth of a second, a nuclear compound was formed that had two very important properties: it was stable, and it could make a copy of itself.Life had come to the crust of the neutron star.

After a short flurry of national and international concern over the “death of the Sun,” the human race settled down to solving the insoluble problem in the best way that they knew—they ignored it and hoped it would go away.

Chapter 2, “Pulsar” Section 1 (p. 11)

No data is preferable to poor data.

Chapter 2, “Pulsar” Section 3 (p. 26)

Do you realize that when I get back from this trip two years from now I am going to be getting more in royalties from children’s books than I will in salary for being a space scientist?

Chapter 3, “Volcano” Section 6 (p. 70)

She normally did not pay very much attention to religion, but, as Leader of the Clan, she was automatically Chief Worshiper of Bright at holy times, and it wouldn’t do to let things be disrupted by an obviously deranged individual.

Chapter 4, “God” Section 18 (pp. 120-121)

His eye-stubs reached out toward the Eyes in an attempt to copulate with the stars.

Chapter 4, “God” Section 20 (p. 133)

The Leader of the Combined Clans, although nominally a devout worshiper of the God Bright, was willing to compartmentalize her mind and look at the pictures without being bothered by the religious overtones.

They are signaling to us with the neutron star equivalent of America Indian smoke signals!

Chapter 6, “Contact” Section 5 (p. 208)

You are lucky. Very few theoretical scientists ever see their mathematical equations turned into working hardware in their lifetime.

Chapter 7, “Interaction” Section 6 (p. 255)

“Inertia propulsion!” Pierre exclaimed. “On our last shift we were teaching them Newton’s law of gravity. Today they have inertia drives! Where will they be tomorrow?”“They probably will be able to control space and time and won’t have to bother with such clumsy things as black hole gravity generators and inertia drives,” Amalita replied.